Flowering

Marijuana Horticulture

by Jorge Cervantes

Cannabis must flower and produce seeds to successfully complete its annual life cycle. Marijuana is a dioecious plant, being either male (pollen producing) or female (ovule producing). However, hermaphrodite (bisexual) plants with both male and female flowers can occur.

In nature, cannabis flowers in the fall, after the long hot days of summer. The long nights and short days of autumn signal marijuana to start flowering. Plants are normally either male or female. Cannabis produces male or female pre-flowers after four weeks of vegetative growth.

Growth patterns and chemistry change during flowering: stems elongate; leaves grow progressively fewer blades; cannabinoid production slows at first then accelerates; and flower formation is rapid at first then slows. Nutrient needs change as growth stages change. Plants focus n flower production rather than vegetative growth. Green chlorophyll production, requiring much nitrogen, slows. Phosphorus and potassium uptake increase to promote floral formation. Shortly before the flowering stage, growers change to a super bloom fertilizer formula with less nitrogen and more potassium and phosphorus.

induce flowering in greenhouse, outdoors, and indoors by giving plants mre hours of total darkness and fewer hours of light. Give cannabis 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness and 12 hours of light to induce visible signs of flowering in two weeks or less. This program is effective in all but the latest blooming pure sativa strains. Growers with a vegetative room illuminated 18-24 hours a day and a flowering room with 12-hour days and 12-hour nights, create environments that mimic the photoperiod in summer and fall. With this simple combination, growers crank out a crop of outstanding buds every six to ten weeks all year long.

inducing flowering in cannabis grown from seed with a 12/12 day/night photoperiod will cause pants to show sex, male or female. Once the sex of the plant is guaranteed, males are almost always harvested before they shed pollen, and females are coaxed into higher yields. Once the photoperiod is set, disrupting it will cause plants to suffer stress. If they suffer enough stress, hermaphrodite tendencies increase.

Water intake of flowering plants is usually somewhat less than in the vegetative stage. Adequate water during flowering is important for plants to carry on internal chemistry and resin production. Withholding water to stress a plant will actually stunt growth and diminish yield.

Removing large fan leaves to allow more intense light to reach small buds or to stress plants is crazy! Large leaves are necessary to keep plants healthy. Indoors and in greenhouses where the hours of darkness are controlled, cannabis flowers for six to ten weeks or longer. This is a very short time. Hacking off branch tips to initiate more budding sites diffuses floral hormones and retards growth. Remove only leaves that are 50 percent or more damaged by disease , pests, and cultural practices.